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The Douglas Fir Trail is beautiful in the summer and fall and treacherous in the winter and spring due to huge ice flows that cover the stairs. Dogwood and violets are some of the shady summer wildflowers you’ll see on this trek. It is a birders paradise so bring your binoculars. At dusk in the Fall I saw three Great-horned Owls fly across the path in front of me and then the coyotes started to howl. A wilderness trek in the heart of the city!
~From The Best Walks in Calgary:
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After Nan checked out this trail with her Mom a couple of weeks ago, she suggested that we check it out on Saturday. Saturday was a hot, summer day, perfect weather for a walk in the woods.
We walked to the bike path along the Bow from our house and headed upstream. At the first opportunity we cut across the train tracks from checking out the flora and fauna in the Riparian zone, into the willows and long grass along the slopes of the bow.
The trail should have moved into and through the Eastern most stand of Douglas Fir trees, but for some slumping reasons. We caught up with the trail again about halfway through, where it had been re-routed.
Following it up through the cool shade of the Douglas Firs, the trail breaks open to an incredible view up the Bow river valley.
At this point in the trail we decided that we’d head back. Ignoring the signs this time, we thought that washout… It’s not raining, so we don’t have to worry about any immediate danger. How bad could it be?
The trail was decimated. The rout perilous. 50+ year old trees knocked down, as the soil beneath their roots slumped away, and reformed into clay.
Bridges are twisted and moved in places the trail is completely gone, leaving one only to guess where to go next. I don’t think that it’ll be open for a while. Which is too bad. It was a little piece of the quiet and smells of the mountains, within walking distance of out house.